Chicago office building feared pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Feds tasked counterterrorism team to keep watch

The Department of Homeland Security and Chicago Police Department dispatched a special counterterrorism team in Chicago to monitor potential pro-Palestinian protests despite there being a lack of evidence of violence, let alone terrorism. [https://www.noirnews.org/p/dhs-monitoring-pro-palestinian-protests-chicago](https://www.noirnews.org/p/dhs-monitoring-pro-palestinian-protests-chicago)

Greenberg Traurig, a law firm and tenant of 77 W. Wacker Dr. on Chicago’s downtown riverfront, is representing several victims of Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel, in a lawsuit alleging that two pro-Palestinian activist groups, American Muslims for Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine, are propagandists for Hamas.

The lawsuit worried the head of security at 77 W. Wacker Dr. that there could be demonstrations, or even “terrorist acts” outside of the building. So he contacted DHS, who, without asking for clarification or garnering evidence of any threat of violence or criminal activity, tasked a CPIC counterterrorism team to monitor the protests.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Chicago Police Department did not comment when asked for clarification about what kind of monitoring the CPIC team performed. It’s possible DHS and CPD directly tracked individual members of American Muslims for Palestine, National Students for Justice in Palestine and other pro-Palestinian activist groups.

“Historically, a significant amount of counterterrorism has been directed at monitoring political speech,” said Chip Gibbons, Policy Director at the civil liberties nonprofit Defending Rights and Dissent. “Attacks on Palestinian speech and Palestinian organizing has been key to driving this revival of the McCarthyite project under the label of counterterrorism.”

Whatever your views on the conflict, I believe there is an argument that this is disturbing from a civil liberties perspective, as speech and assembly are protected in the United States under the First Amendment.